INTERWAR ALBANIA, 1918-41

Albania achieved real statehood after World War I, in part because of
the diplomatic intercession of the United States. The country suffered
from debilitating lack of economic and social development, however, and
its first years of independence were fraught with political instability.
Unable to survive in a predatory world without a foreign protector,
Albania became the object of tensions between Italy and the Kingdom of
the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (Yugoslavia), which were both bent on
controlling the country. With the kingdom's military assistance, Ahmed
Bey Zogu, the son of a clan chieftain, emerged victorious from an
internal political power struggle in late 1924. Zogu, however, quickly
turned his back on Belgrade and looked to Mussolini's Italy for
patronage. In 1928 Zogu coaxed the country's parliament to declare
Albania a kingdom and name him king. King Zog remained a hidebound
conservative, and Albania was the only Balkan state where the government
did not see fit to introduce a comprehensive land reform between the two
world wars. Mussolini's forces finally overthrew Zog when they occupied
Albania in 1939.